Sheriff, task force raid Silver Outpost Thursday

BY ALLEN ESSEX

Staff Writer

WILLACY COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT AND U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY TASK FORCE conducted a raid on a Sebastain 8-liner. Over $10,000 in cash and the motherboards from 86 machines were seized. (Photo by Allen Essex) Willacy County sheriff’s investigators and deputies raided the Silver Outpost 8- liner game room in Sebastian Thursday. They seized $10,722 in cash and the motherboards from 86 machines.

The game room and its silver exchange, a small, portable building where silver game tokens are exchanged for cash, were raided. Some of the cash was seized from that building, located adjacent to the maquinita’s parking lot.

The raid was conducted with a U.S. Homeland Security Task Force, based in Harlingen, that operates in several counties and is made up of federal, state and local officers, Sheriff Larry Spence explained.

One illegal alien employed at the maquinita was arrested and turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol, Spence said.

Silver Outpost was one of four maquinitas that had been allowed to stay in operation by a court injunction issued Aug. 13 by 197th state District Court Judge Migdalia Lopez.

The case has been moved to federal court at the request of attorney Ricardo Morado, who represents Willacy County. A hearing will be held Dec. 27. Now only two of the four maquinitas are still operating under the state court injunction, the sheriff said.

In addition to the Silver Outpost, the three other maquinitas allowed to continue operation through the district court injunction were the Silver Star, the Silver Express and La Victoria game rooms. The injunction was only temporary relief from a newly enacted county ordinance, which does not allow them to break the state’s gambling law, the sheriff said. Eightliners are only in violation of state law if they pay out in cash or in merchandise worth more than $5.